The molecular basis of the hydroxylation reaction of the C
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of a C-terminal glycine catalyzed bypeptidylglycine
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-hydroxylating monooxygenase (PHM) was investigated using hybrid quantum-classical(QM-MM) computational techniques. We have identified the most reactive oxygenated species
and presentednew insights into the hydrogen abstraction (H-abstraction) mechanism operative in PHM. Our results suggestthat O
2 binds to Cu
B to generate Cu
BII-O
2
- followed by electron transfer (ET) from Cu
A to form Cu
BI-O
2
-.The computed potential energy profiles for the H-abstraction reaction for Cu
BII-O
2
-, Cu
BI-O
2
-,
and [Cu
BII-OOH]
+ species indicate that none of these species can be responsible for abstraction. However, the latterspecies can spontaneously form [Cu
BO]
+2 (which consists of a two-unpaired-electrons [Cu
BO]
+ moietyferromagneticaly coupled with a radical cation located over the three Cu
B lig
ands, in the quartet spin groundstate) by abstracting a proton from the surrounding solvent. Both this monooxygenated species
and theone obtained by reduction with ascorbate, [Cu
BO]
+, were found to be capable of carrying out theH-abstraction; however, whereas the former abstracts the hydrogen atom concertedly with almost noactivation energy, the later forms an intermediate that continues the reaction by a rebinding step. We proposethat the active species in H-abstraction in PHM is probably [Cu
BO]
+2 because it is formed exothermically
and can concertedly abstract the substrate HA atom with the lower overall activation energy. Interestingly,this species resembles the active oxidant in cytochrome P450 enzymes, Compound I, suggesting thatboth PHM
and cytochrome P450 enzymes may carry out substrate hydroxylation by using a similarmechanism.